Owen Sound City Hall. (photo by Matt Hermiz/Bayshore Broadcasting)
Owen Sound’s proposed 2024 budget includes a 3.89 per cent combined tax increase.
City councillors met Friday morning at city hall to discuss next year’s draft budget, which would cost the average assessed home owner about $166 more on the annual tax bill. But the bottom line increase home owners end up absorbing will largely depend on what happens at the Grey County council table.
The city’s projections assume a seven per cent increase for the county portion of the levy. Grey County councillors have been working through budget deliberations to try to lower the hike next year, which started at 12 per cent when staff presented the first draft budget in early November.
“People forget sometimes that they really have two different municipalities providing services to them. Social services and transportation up at the county, are important costs and services for our community here in Owen Sound,” says City Mayor Ian Boddy. “We want to manage the cost, but at both municipal levels we want to provide the best services that we can.”
A report from Owen Sound’s Director of Corporate Services Kate Allan says growth is expected to offset nearly $800,000 of the proposed $1.9-million city operating budget increase next year. That helped lower the municipal portion of the municipal levy increase to 3.52 per cent.
Allan called the growth-related number “unprecedented” for the city: “In my time here, I have not been able to apply a growth figure to our municipal levy that I am in this budget. As a caveat … this number is likely to be even higher once we get the analysis from our tax consultants.”
The city’s expected increase is generally below hikes proposed by some comparable municipalities across the province, which range from about 4.5 per cent to as high as 12 per cent. A staff report highlighted some nearby increases in South Bruce Peninsula (4.99 per cent), Grey Highlands (10 per cent) and The Blue Mountains (12 per cent), as well as other larger urban municipalities across Ontario.
“Each year we want to be lower than everybody else in the area and other comparable municipalities so that we keep moving down to become more competitive with our taxes,” Boddy says.
Salaries and benefits represent about 58 per cent of the total city operating budget next year, Allan told councillors.
The projected Owen Sound police budget is about $14-million and would require a levy of $8.7-million – an increase of 6.9 per cent. A city staff report says the Owen Sound Police Service has the highest cost in the province for charges per officer.
“We are looking at alternatives to just more boots on the ground, but that has to be a negotiated item with the association,” City Police Chief Craig Ambrose told councillors Friday morning.
The city has allocated $5.8-million for its fire department budget – about 7.8 per cent increase.
The Owen Sound & North Grey Union Public Library budget is $2.05-million in 2024, an increase of around four per cent.
Owen Sound councillors will receive an update to the multi-year capital plan at a meeting on Dec. 18.